Bonehead of the Week: Representative Don Young (R-AK)

I don't know if you guys have seen the news lately, but apparently the Senate is launching a federal investigation into an earmark that was altered after it was passed by congress but before it was signed by the President. The earmark was originally part of a highway funding bill that was approved for one specific part of a Florida highway and was worth $10 million.

After the bill was approved by Congress, apparently Rep. Don Young (R-AK) changed the wording of the bill to send those $10 million to another part of Florida's interstate, "Coconut Road." His spokesperson said that "It was an error [in the bill]. It was originally supposed to say Coconut Road so he changed it."

Now, with all due respect to Rep. Young, and not even considering the fact that somehow he has enough money or even feels the need to hire his own representative spokesperson (hmm isn't he supposed to be a representative of the people) you can't just go around altering bills after they have been approved by Congress. You might be thinking that its harmless for a Representative to go in and fix an error within a bill, but its really not.

This isn't a matter of fixing a mistake, it's a matter of rules, customs, and what is fundamentally right and wrong. How can a congressman have enough independent authority to alter a bill before it reaches the President without anyone finding out. What if that representative had said "the bill was supposed to say $100 million, so I changed it." That congressman is then assuming that everyone would have voted the same with a $90 million increase, which is patently false. Who knows if this bill would have passed if those voting had known the money was going to "Coconut Road."

In essence this guy was acting as his own Congress. He took something that was passed, re-wrote it, then felt that he had the authority to then re-pass that legislation, all by himself. DUDE! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!

Sorry I had to speak in layman's terms there, but it's just so dumb that this guy could break the rules so blatently, and then not even feel as if he had broken the rules at all. What if someone did that and approved more money to fund the Iraq war, to fund a terrorist organization, to fund the KKK? He thinks he's "fixing" the bill, but I think he's the one that needs the fixing. Eh, whatever, we can't expect all of our representatives to have read the Constitution right?

righhhhttttt (sarcasm)

Bonehead of The Week: All of us

Apparently the candidates and the media and the public in general have nothing better to focus on. By writing this story I'm part of the problem I suppose. The story in the news over the past few days has been Obama's comments regarding Pennsylvania voters, who he described as "angry" and "bitter."

"When I go around and I talk to people, there is frustration, and there is anger, and there is bitterness. I want to make a point here. [Pennsylvanians are] frustrated and for good reason, because for the last 25 years they’ve seen jobs shipped overseas, they’ve seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs, they’ve lost their pensions. They’ve lost their health care."

He was making a point, that voters are frustrated with the way their lives have turned over the past few decades. Did he say it the right way? No, probably not. Describing people who you are trying to win over as angry and bitter probably isn't the best strategy, and he knows it. He knows he screwed up, but what the heck is with the amount of coverage on these comments? Candidates make about 5-6 stump speeches per day. Slips of the tongue have to be expected, these people are absolutely exhausted.

For example, when Hillary said that she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire. Well, if you count little girls reading you poems and handing you flowers as sniper fire, then I guess she would be right. She got caught in a lie, and she knows it, we all know it, move on. Candidates lie. I'm sorry to be the one to accept that, but they lie, and they always will. They're trying to prove that their the right person for the job, so they feel the need to bloat their own records a little bit. Is it right? Should it be happening? Absolutely not, but it is the product of the amount of attention we as Americans pay to elections in general. The candidates that simply tell it how it is are boring, they don't get any media attention, they don't get any votes. So how do we fix this? Can we ever really elect the "average joe" that we all claim to want in the White House? I'm not sure, give me your ideas in the comment section.

Anyways, we're all getting a little antsy before the Pennsylvania primaries. There has been a lull in the action, so you can expect more rediculous controversies like this on the news every night. FLASH: HILLARY CLINTON ORDERS PEPPERONI PIZZA IN PRIMARILY VEGITARIAN COMMUNITY. Ugh, give me a break. There will be more slips of the tongue as well. I'm sure if we analyzed every line of every speech these candidates give on a daily basis, we could find a reason to be angry or even bitter with all of them. Pun intended.

P.S. Sorry for the little break there in between posts, there has been a lot going on recently, and we're trying to get the new site up as soon as possible. Just know that we're working on it and the posts will be back on a daily basis starting today.

The Wright Affair

So I'm sure by now most of you have heard some of the comments made by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. These comments had anti-American flavor to them, and some were racially charged. Jeremiah Wright is a black man. He was the leader of a predominantly black church. He seems to harbor a lot of ill will against the United States for what it has done to black people throughout history. This was part of him now infamous "god damn America" sermon, in which he condemned the country for trying to play the role of God, and letting its black population down.

These comments have been reproduced and misrepresented completely. This is not a defense of what he said, because I feel that in his position of religious leadership, what he said was not only stupid but overstepped his bounds. I don't mean to convince you that the "mass media" has taken this story and purposefully mangled it to attack Obama. No, I don't subscribe to those common lines of thinking, that although popular, are conspiracy theories none the less.

This is simply an argument that Barack Obama should be left out of the matter completely. People in America are hearing these comments, and condemning both Wright and Obama at the same time. Obama is being thrown under the bus, his national poll numbers are going down, and he's being crucified by competitors for what his former pastor said. His former pastor. Give me a break.

To me, Jeremiah Wright can be accurately compared to that crazy uncle or grandpa that all of us have encountered at one point or another. You love that uncle or grandpa, because theyre family. Sometimes they might say something stupid, or racist even, but you never hate them. You don't hate them because you know that despite their flaws, they are good people with good intentions. You realize that just because they say something doesn't mean you need to believe it. You realize that you are your own person with your own beliefs, and you move on.

The same thing happened to Barack Obama. Jeremiah Wright was a close personal friend of his. Wright baptized Obama's children for gods sakes, the two were close. Now Republicans and fellow Democrats are attacking Obama for not trashing Wright and leaving him in the dust? I don't know about you, but I have more respect for Obama knowing that he wouldn't ditch someone he considers close to family just because of a few dumb remarks. Obama said that he didn't agree with Wright, but that he would remain with the congregation. Bravo.

What Wright said is no reflection on Obama's own individual character. It tells us nothing about how Obama feels regarding race in America, and it tells us nothing about the sort of people Obama associates himself with.

If we really need to spend this much time analyzing off color remarks made by a Democratic hopeful's former pastor, perhaps the degradation of this race is worse than I previously thought. America.....Im sorry I mean God, save us all.

LIke President, Like Cabinet

Alphonso R. Jackson, the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has been under criticism the last couple of days, jepordizing his leadership as a cabinet member. It is said that Jackson secretly channeled hundreds of thousdands of dollars of government money to personal friends in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands. This is just the icing on top of his cake of corruption.

As if this were not enough, Jackson and other senior HUD officials exchanged emails in which they talked about taking away federal aid from Philadelphia housing chief Carl R. Greene. Senators such as Christopher J. Dodd and Bob Casey, as well as myself, are disgusted with these actions that undermine the public's faith in government officials. It seems that from the beginning of the Bush administration public confidence in our government has been greatly decreasing, mainly due to bad decisions and shady dealings.

These actions only restate the obvious: the fact that we need someone to bring change in the next election. So to Bush and all his cabinet members, being lame ducks, don't try anything fancy in your last couple months in federal office, like redirecting federal money away from helpless Katrina victims to your personal friends. What you did Jackson, is quite shocking, but like I said, like president like cabinet.

Gov. Elliot Spitzer: G-O-N-E

Yes, that's right New York Governor Elliot Spitzer resigned today after much scrutinity relating to his involvement with a prosititute ring. There are four more words that I would like to say regarding this and four more words only:

I LOVE NEW YORK

(and as my man Forest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that.")

Gov. Elliot Spitzer: P-I-M-P

Governor Elliot Spitzer admitted to his senior administration officials today that he had been involved in a prostitute ring. While he was not a ring leader, he was linked to the ring as a client.That's just great. One of this fine country's 50 governors enjoys "having a good time" with a prostitute. To make matters worse, the man is married. He's MARRIED.
Oh well, I guess if his wife is smart she'll move out for a little while and make him sweat (unless she's like Hillary Clinton). My first advice to you Elliot is to resign, admit you were wrong, apologize and hope you don't get food thrown at you while you walk down the street. My second advice, move out of the state, if not the country because let me tell you, if I was a citizen of New York, I would probably throw a hamburger or maybe a milk shake at you. My last advice, get plastic surgery, it's probably over kill but if you really want to get away, than it's necessary. 

Unfortunately that's not how American politics works. He'll either deny it happened or just apologize. Then, his political people will spin this until it looks like the prostitute took advantage of him. The government of New York will probably put him on trial to make it appear as if they're angry, but he'll get off. Then he'll serve out the rest of his term at which point he will be turned over to the people. Here is where the real justice will be served, New Yorkers are tough and they aren't going to like this guy making their state look bad. Finally Spitzer will most likely loose the election and I will be proud of every New Yorker. You see Elliot, you can say in your inaugural address, "We must transform our government so that it is as ethical and wise as all of New York" but New Yorkers will expect you to live up to it. Well who needs  ethics anyways, right? I mean its so overrated and I'm sure that your personal decisions weren't involved in that upper statement, right? Of course. Nice try but the people of America and New York just won't buy it. Hope that prostitute was worth it!